The present invention relates to vehicle inspection and adjustment, and more particularly to facilitating the inspection and adjustment of vehicle components relating to vehicle suspension and steering.
Vehicle suspension and steering components are subject to wear and failure. It is necessary, as a result, to inspect and adjust these components periodically to maintain the vehicle suspension and steering in satisfactory condition. This inspection and adjustment is typically performed by a technician who must perform these tasks on a wide variety of different makes and models of vehicles. Since the wear points and adjustment points on these different makes and models typically differ from model to model and make to make, it is extremely difficult for any one technician to have sufficient knowledge to satisfactorily inspect and adjust more than a fraction of the vehicles encountered. Books are available to guide the technician through the inspection and adjustment processes, but the books are bulky, are easily soiled, and generally are not a satisfactory solution.
Various manufacturers of vehicle alignment equipment have attempted to address these difficulties and assist the technicians by providing certain aids as part of the alignment equipment, but these prior art approaches could be improved. For example, one manufacturer displays a stick-figure or animation sequence to the technician to guide the adjustment process. These animation sequences are stored on CD-ROM (compact disk read only memory), but they lack sufficient detail to adequately help the technician and are not specific to particular models of vehicles. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult with the animation sequence for the technician to accurately determine the part on the actual vehicle which is being worked on which corresponds to the part or parts illustrated in the animation sequence. In addition, it takes five to ten seconds before the animation sequence begins to be displayed.
At least one manufacturer has addressed the difficulty of lack of sufficient detail by providing actual photographs of vehicle suspensions and steering mechanisms. These actual photographs are stored on a video laser disk, which means that retrieval for display can take up to nine or ten seconds per photograph, which is longer than could be desired. In addition, the photographs are not specific to particular vehicle models on the whole. Instead, a single photograph may be used for a number of related, but different models. As a result, the technician can be at times unsure if the inspection or adjustment is being performed properly. In addition, the photographs displayed using this system are analog, and making the master for these disks is relatively expensive. Moreover, the video laser disk player is also relatively expensive and fragile.